13/02/2025

THURSDAY | FEB 13, 2025

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‘AI statement fails to address national security’

Nurses suspended over death threats SYDNEY: Two nurses here have been suspended from work for threatening to kill Jewish patients and refusing to treat them in a video, triggering an investigation by police. The video was shared by a TikTok user named Max Veifer, who says he is from Israel, and shows him talking to a man and woman wearing medical scrubs. “I am so upset that you are Israeli. Eventually you are going to get killed and go to (hell),” said the man after Veifer mentioned he is from Israel. When asked why he would be killed, the woman used an obscenity and said: “It is Palestine’s country, not your country.” She said she would not treat any Jewish patients and instead kill them. With a threatening gesture, the man said he had already sent many Israelis who visited the hospital to hell. Reuters could not independently verify the footage and it was not immediately clear if the full video of the conversation had been uploaded by the user. Some of the woman’s words had been beeped out in the video. Reuters could not immediately contact the two nurses. New South Wales state Health Minister Ryan Park said the nurses have been “stood down immediately”, pending an investigation. “The investigative process now takes place. I do not want to leave a sliver of light to allow any of them to think that they will ever work for New South Wales Health again.” New South Wales state police said its antisemitic taskforce is investigating a social media video depicting alleged health workers making threats. Veifer, who posts videos about the Middle East, has 102,000 followers and his videos have been liked by 4.2 million users. – Reuters Aid agency official fired after critical report WASHINGTON: The US Agency for International Development (USAID) inspector-general was fired on Tuesday, a day after his office published a report critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the agency, its official said. Paul Martin had served as the agency’s inspector-general, a position requiring US Senate confirmation, since December 2023. He was informed by an email from Office of Presidential Personnel deputy director Trent Morse. No reason was provided. The White House did not have any comment. The report said the move to dismantle USAID has crippled its ability to conduct oversight of unspent aid worth US$8.2 billion (RM36.67 billion). It also said staff cuts and stop-work orders have made it difficult to ensure taxpayer-funded aid ends up in the hands of intended recipients. Hundreds of USAID programmes representing billions of dollars of US assistance came to a halt after US President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on most foreign aid on Jan 20, saying he wanted to ensure it was aligned with his “America First” policy. On Tuesday, Trump called USAID “incompetent and corrupt” as he tasked Elon Musk with scaling down the agency, which had more than 10,000 staff at home and overseas before all but just over 600 were put on leave or fired. The Trump administration last week took steps to put most of USAID’s workforce on administrative leave but the move was blocked by a judge on Friday. In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed US$72 billion of aid on initiatives, including women’s health in conflict zones, clean water access, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations last year. – Reuters

o US, Britain not signatories to agreement

However, the UK agreed with “much” of the declaration and would “continue to work closely with our international partners”, the spokesperson added. There was no indication that key industry players, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, would support the deal, which agreed that AI should be “sustainable for people and the planet”. “You would only ever expect us to sign up to initiatives that we judge to be in our national interest,” a 10 Downing Street spokesman told reporters. Last month, Starmer pledged to make the UK a “world leader” in AI, announcing plans for companies to be able to test their innovations in the UK before regulating the technology. The UK would be “pro-growth and pro innovation on regulation”, he said, adding that the government would regulate it in the way “that we think is best for the UK”. US Vice-President J.D. Vance warned European allies against over-regulating the AI sector and China against using the technology to tighten its grip on power.

The confrontational remarks punctured the unity that France had hoped to project for the two-day meeting. “Excessive regulation could kill a transformative sector just as it is taking off,” Vance told global leaders and tech industry chiefs at the Grand Palais, calling on Europe to show “optimism rather than trepidation”. Minutes earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for “collective, global efforts to establish governance and standards that uphold our shared values, address risks and build trust”. Modi co-hosted the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, and his country will host the next meeting on advancing global rules. Macron said rules are “the foundation, alongside innovation and acceleration, of what would allow AI to arrive and endure”. China, France, Germany and India were among 60 signatories who agreed that it is a priority that “AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy” under “international frameworks”. – AFP

LONDON: A final statement at an artificial intelligence (AI) summit in Paris did not address questions of “national security”, a UK government spokesperson said on Tuesday after Britain failed to sign the communique. The closing deal at the gathering agreed to prioritise securing AI technology with regulation to make it “open” and “ethical”. Neither Britain nor the United States – home to two of the world’s three largest AI industries – signed the agreement. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously urged the UK to forge its own path when it comes to AI regulation. A UK government spokesperson said: “We felt the declaration did not provide enough practical clarity on global governance, nor did it sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it.”

OPPOSING CRUELTY ... French animal rights activists protesting in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg

against living conditions of farm animals and their genetic selection in the intensive poultry farming industry. – AFPPIC

Trump blasts judges, constitutional clash looms WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump slammed “highly political judges” on Tuesday as his new administration veered closer to a constitutional clash with the courts over his plans to overhaul the government. our incompetently run government. Now certain activists and highly political judges want us to slow down or stop. Health, firing a government ethics watchdog and placing workers from the US Agency for International Development on leave.

Injunctions have been placed on each of these actions and on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Trump to restore public health web pages that were removed last month. A federal judge also upbraided the White House on Monday for failing to comply with his order to end the federal funding freeze. Concerns are mounting that Trump could defy the rulings, prompting a full-blown constitutional crisis. Vice-President J.D. Vance has fuelled speculation over a coming clash, claiming that judges lack the authority to “control the executive’s legitimate power”. – AFP

“Losing this momentum will be very detrimental to finding the truth, which is turning out to be a disaster for those involved in running our government. Much left to find.” Trump first ran up against the judiciary over an attempt to freeze US$3 trillion (RM13.4 trillion) in federal grants and loans, a deferred resignation programme for government workers and a plan to transfer transgender inmates to men’s prisons. He has also clashed with judges over his abolition of birthright citizenship, sending Venezuelan migrants to Guantanamo Bay, funding cuts to the National Institutes of

With the Republican Party controlling Congress and loyal to Trump, he has largely ignored the legislature as he carried out his policies. But he has faced pushback from the courts since taking office, with media outlets reporting a dozen orders issued against the administration – five of them on Monday – from some 40 lawsuits. Lashing out on Truth Social, Trump said: “Billions of dollars of fraud, waste, and abuse, has already been found in the investigation of